• On page 1, under the question “What most influenced you to apply to UMBC’s Graduate School?”, change it to a drop down menu, with the following choices below. Remove the numbers and dashes from what is displayed, but if you can have those numbers be the unique identifier on the back- end, it may be helpful in the future.
  • 01 – Faculty: my undergraduate faculty encouraged me
  • 02 – Faculty: the reputation of the UMBC faculty
  • 03 – Faculty: communications with UMBC faculty
  • 10 – Family/Friends: family connections to UMBC
  • 11 – Family/Friends: have friends who have gone here
  • 20 - Finances: lower tuition than other places
  • 21 – Finances: received tuition remission (staff/family benefit)
  • 22 – Finances: received funding (GA)
  • 30 – Location: location of UMBC near my home
  • 31 – Location: wanted to be in the Baltimore/DC area
  • 40 – Marketing: Graduate Horizons experience
  • 41 – Marketing: conversations with UMBC people at conference/fair
  • 42 – Marketing: conversations with UMBC graduate students
  • 43 – Marketing: summer research experience at UMBC
  • 44 – Marketing: visitation/interview experience
  • 45 – Marketing: UMBC marketing materials (brochures, website, ads)
  • 46 - Marketing: other websites (Peterson’s, Gradschool.com, etc.)
  • 50 – Program: quality of the graduate program
  • 51 – Program: UMBC has a program that I wanted
  • 60 - Size: smallness of the university/Graduate School
  • 70 – UMBC Undergraduate: was a UMBC undergraduate
  • 71 – UMBC Undergraduate: the accelerated bachelor’s-master’s program
  • 99 – Other: blank, don’t know, inappropriate reply
• On page 2 (for UMBCG), under Educational History, and page 1 (for UMBCGND) under Academic History Record
  
  • The question that reads “Have you ever enrolled as a graduate student at any institution?” needs to have the Yes and No html text labels swapped. Because of a logical change in our backend information system, we have been manually swapping these answers. By simply swapping the labels, this will do the manual swapping automatically. Code will look something like:

<nobr><input name="UMBCGND-PREV_ED_YN" value="No" type="radio"> <span class="normal">Yes</span></nobr>
<nobr><input name="UMBCGND-PREV_ED_YN" value="Yes" checked="checked" type="radio"> <span class="normal">No</span></nobr>

• On page 2, under Educational History
  
  • Make 6 lines of educational history fillable, instead of 4. OR Can you make the number of college input lines expand dynamically, as users enter more colleges? If they do not enter enough, it does not expand.
  • UMBC (We) need to decide what to be done about if the college being entered, did not have a degree received at it. Some applicants may have gone to a college and just got classes / credits, transfered, or they did non-degree. They did not earn any degree. Explain it in the info text above? Add more detailed fields like ‘Degree working towards’?
  • ‘End Date’ field is required. Some applicants may enter colleges that they are still attending, therefore there is not yet an end date. An explanation may needs to exist, as to what should be entered in this case OR we unrequire the field.
• On page 3, under References
  • Online References default value should be YES for all of them
  • Waive Access default value should be YES for all of them
  • couldnt access a clean slate app without creating a new account, will try later
• On page 4, under Graduate School Residency Form
  
  • “neces-sary” → “necessary”
  • needs to be corrected on page 2 of UMBCGND

1. On page 2, under ‘Enrollment Objective’, where you select your program of interest
   
   • Engineering Management needs to drastically modify its tracks
   • Remove the “no track”
   • Add or modify the below. The code does not need to be shown, but it cane be coded on the back end
   • Chemical/Biochemical Regulatory Engineering - BI
   • Chemical Engineering - CH
   • Computational Thermal Fluid Dynamics - CT
   • Computer Science - CS
   • Design and Manufacturing - DM
   • Electrical Engineering - EE
   • Environmental Engineering - EN
   • Information Systems - IS
   • Mechatronics - ME
   • Structural Mechanics - SM
   • Systems Engineering - SY
2. On page 3, under References
   
   • Make the informative text more bulleted and digestable.
   • Change informative text ‘If you indicate that you would like to use the online process, instructions will be emailed to your references when you submit;’ → ‘If you indicate that you would like to use the online process, instructions will be emailed to your references only once you save, pay, and submit this entire application;’
   • change link ‘http://www.umbc.edu/GradProg/forms/pdf/recommendation_form02.pdf’ → ‘http://www.umbc.edu/gradschool/docs/forms/prospective_students/recommendation_form.pdf’
   • Spelling mistakes in following sentence need to be fixed. My bad. Add to informative text ‘After you have saved, paid, and submitted the application, you will be able to login with your username and password to see the status of online references, send the recommender’s reminders to submit their reference, and also completely change a recommender’s email address if it is incorrect or you want to switch recommenders.’
3. Couldnt see virgin form; couldnt verify; On page 3, in the References section, we have students choose if they want to waive access to each recommendation. The field should initially be set to YES, and be a required field to be filled in.
   1. Need to work with PDF person on this. Related, is that this ‘waive access’ variable does not come out on our exported PDF recommendation. There is a question and check boxes, but the results do not appear to go through.

1. Add 2 supplemental plain text form fields and explanation text for the MAGS Management Aging Studies major: personalessay.pdf resumeform.pdf
   
   • They do not need to include any of the extraneuos information, simply the content, and appropriatly sized text boxes. You can likely fit them onto one form page.
   • The resume should include the text “You can copy and paste it below in plain text, send it via email to the graduate school umbcgrad@umbc.edu , or send it in manually to the UMBC Graduate School, 1000 Hilltop Cir., Baltimore, MD, 21075”

1. Add 1 supplemental plain text form field and explanation text for the INCC Intercultural Communications major.
   • It should read:
     “RESUME
     Please submit a brief resume including education, work experience, and volunteer work. You can copy and paste it below in plain text, send it via email to the graduate school umbcgrad@umbc.edu , or send it in manually to the UMBC Graduate School, 1000 Hilltop Cir., Baltimore, MD, 21075”
2. Change the link for INCC Intercultural Communications major from “http://www.umbc.edu/GradProg/forms/pdf/INCC-Statement_of_Support.pdf” → “http://www.umbc.edu/gradschool/docs/forms/prospective_students/INCC-application.pdf”

1. First paragraph change to:
   Dear Student: Thank your for your interest in the doctoral program in Human Services Psychology. If you have any questions that are not covered by the materials, please feel free to contact me in writing or by telephone (410) 455-2362. Please note that the catalogue and Application for Graduate Admission may mention several application deadlines. Applications for the Human Services Psychology program are considered only once each year, and the application deadline for the program is December 1.
   Cordially,
   
   Steven C. Pitts, Ph.D.
   Should read: Associate Professor and Director
   Professor and Director
   Human Services Psychology Ph.D. Program
   
   

- First pull-down menu options should be:

• Behavioral Medicine
• Community-Social Psychology
• Community-Social/Behavioral Medicine
• Clinical Psychology
• Clinical Psychology/Behavioral Medicine*
• Clinical/Community-Social Psychology*

- “List the undergraduate courses in statistics you have taken and those courses in psychology that required your participation in a laboratory.” → “List the undergraduate courses in statistics you have taken and those courses in psychology that required your participation in a laboratory and/or conducting research.”

1. “Please list all the papers you have presented at professional conferences and/or settings.” → “Please list all papers or posters you have presented at professional conferences or other settings.”
2. “Describe whatever technical skills you have acquired (e.g., computer use and programming, foreign languages, electronics).” → “Describe any technical skills you have acquired (e.g., computer use and programming, foreign languages, electronics) that are applicable to your proposed course of study.”

- Change title from “Supplemental Application for the Human Services Psychology Program” → “Supplemental Application for the Applied Behavior Analysis Program” - First paragraph change to:
Dear Student: Thank your for your interest in the masters program in Applied Behavior Analysis a component of the Human Services Psychology Program. If you have any questions about application procedures that are not covered by the materials, please feel free to contact us in writing, by telephone (410-455-2567), or by e-mail ( HYPERLINK “mailto:tbrown@umbc.edu)” tbrown@umbc.edu). The catalogue and Application for Graduate Admission may mention several application deadlines. Applications for the Applied Behavior Analysis program are considered only one each year and the application deadline for the ABA Program is March 1

Cordially,

Dr. Steven C. Pitts
Should read: Associate Professor and Co-Director
Professor and Co-Director
Applied Behavior Analysis Program
All deletes below are good

1. Delete the “I require notification” box (and statement)
2. Delete the “i” info-box (regarding working closely with a specific faculty member).
3. On the question asking “Which faculty member’s research interests most closely correspond to yours?”, Delete its included parenthetical comment “(with whom would you most like to work)(Please list only one person)”
4. Delete words “First choice” (but leave box).
5. Delete sentence regarding second and third choices
6. Delete words “Second choice” and delete box
7. Delete words “Third choice” and delete box

- Change informative text “Please answer A, B, C and D below. As specifically as you can, state the reasons for your interest in Human Services Psychology.” → “Please answer A, B, and C below. As specifically as you can, state the reasons for your interest in Applied Behavior Analysis.” - Change question “Would you be willing to appear for an interview if it were part of the application procedure?” → “Would you like to visit the UMBC campus and/or Kennedy Krieger Institute if such a visit could be arranged?”

1. Leave pull down menu as Yes, No, Maybe.
2. Delete Comments: (and box)
3. Delete second question “Would you be able to …” and pull down box and Comments: (and box)

1. Under Enrollment Objectives
   
   • ‘Degree Objective’ does not fill out automatically. User cannot fill it in manually. Possibly be causing data validation errors.
     • I think that the UMBC Graduate School has 3 major objectives (there is others though): M.S., Ph.D., Non-Degree, Certificate. I guess that the code for Non-degree should be SAS, but the words “Special Advanced Student” should be next to it, so that applicants know what it stands for. It is some archaic wording for non-degree in our system.
   • Once track code is set by Biotechnology (PRST area, BT track), and you select another major, the track (BT) is still there. Track should only be specified for non-degree programs if they have a track, like biotechnology. Currently Biotechnology is the only non-degree program to have a track, but this will change.

1. On ‘Select A Certificate Program’ page, make the following changes
   • Change “Chemical & Biochemical Engineering/DPET” to “Chemical & Biochemical Engineering”
   • Change “DPET (ISD program)” to “Education (ISD)”
   • Remove Certificate LABEL “DPET (professional Studies)”; Move Certificate “Professional Studies” to be under the changed “Education (ISD)”
   • Change “Electrical Engineering/DPET” to “Electrical Engineering”
2. Not found in page or code. Is this something more for the “new look” project, which deals with many of these complex page dynamics? If someone fills in the blank “Country of Citizenship” with anything other than USA, AND if they answer “no” to “Are you a permanent resident of the U.S.?” there needs to be a message stating: “Only US citizens and Permanent Residents are able to apply for a stand-alone certificate program because non-US citizens are unable to obtain a student visa unless they are enrolled in a degree program.” And then the application needs to be blocked from submission.
   This might be best implemented with javascript or the sorts. Do it with which ever method will work best though.

1. Need to work with PDF person on this. On the PDF output of the form, a piece of data is not being outputted. You are collecting the data, as it can be viewed in html format on the admin site, but the PDF output of the recommendation form does not show it. The data is the ‘waiving of access’ fields. This changing of the PDF form was done by Julie Dahlin in the past. They have data names of:
   • UMBCG-REC_WAIVE_YN.1
   • UMBCG-REC_WAIVE_YN.2
   • UMBCG-REC_WAIVE_YN.3
   • REFERENCE_WAIVE_ACCESS_YN.1
   • REFERENCE_WAIVE_ACCESS_YN.2
   • REFERENCE_WAIVE_ACCESS_YN.3

1. Similar to the above point, the same pieces of data are possibly not being outputted on the empty UMBCGREC form shown to recommender’s. The recommender needs to know if the applicant has chosen to waive access or not. Please make sure that when recommenders login to do an online recommendation, that they see what the student chose. It can be located on the form wherever it makes sense.

1. Change “You should print, or save this page for your records. The information below can be used to track your application should you have any questions.” → “You should print, or save this page for your records. The information below can be used to track your application should you have any questions. <line feed> You should receive a confirmation email in the account that you entered into our forms. Check your spam if you do not receive it with in 24 hours. <line feed> You will be able to log back into this account to see the status of your recommendations, and acknowledgment of your application. Visit the following link to check status: https://www.applyweb.com/cgi-bin/ustat?app_code=umbcg”
2. This page should have more information
   • clear notification that an email with important login and status information will follow
   • login and password??
   • login URL
   • information about that you can log back on to see status of online recommendations
   • information about how long it takes for the Graduate School to process the submission,
   • to contact departments with questions
   • link for additional instructions and which documents to send in